Bill for timely services to citizens gets cabinet nod

The government on Thursday gave its nod to a bill aimed at providing time-bound delivery of services like passports, pensions and birth and death certificates, among others, to the citizens.

The Right of Citizens for Time-Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill, 2011, was approved by union cabinet at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi.

The bill envisages penalty of upto Rs 50,000 against a government official failing to provide his or her duties, official sources said.

It lays down an obligation upon every public authority to publish citizen's charter, stating therein the time within which specified goods shall be supplied and services be rendered and provides for a grievance redressal mechanism for non-compliance of its provisions.

The sources said the issue of inclusion of NRIs in the ambit of the bill to access time-bound delivery of services will be dealt with separately by the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions and the law ministry.

The proposed legislation, spearheaded by department of administrative reforms and public grievances, also mandates a public authority to establish a call centre, customer care centre, help desk and people's support system to ensure time-bound delivery of services.

It also seeks establishment of public grievance redressal commission at the Centre and every state.

According to its provisions, a person aggrieved by the decision of the commission may prefer an appeal before the Lokpal at the Centre (in case of decision by the Centre's public grievances redressal commission) and the Lokayuktas in the states.

All services provided by both the Centre and the state governments will be extended to citizens in a time-bound manner under the bill.

Addressing a joint sitting of Parliament last month, President Pranab Mukherjee had said that his government attaches priority to the enactment of the legislation proposed in this regard.